The letter looked at the "significant problems that occurred on the Chelmsford to Liverpool Street line last week."

Mrs Ford pointed out after "many trains being cancelled at peak times" that the Transport Secretary would "need to look again at how compensation is structured especially when trains are cancelled or overcrowded."

She in particular highlighted the delay-repay scheme which does not punish the train operator or National Rail after trains are cancelled or busy.

The letter also addressed the "proposal to introduce 15 minute Delay-Repay scheme" which she also claimed should be looked at by Mr Grayling.

Chelmsford's MP revealed the contents of the letter in a tweet yesterday afternoon.

Following the tweet, Mrs Ford said: "I spoke to Chris Grayling, Secretary of State for Transport, on Wednesday evening regarding the situation that has occurred the week before.

"Broken trains meant that lanes were closed and there were particularly a number of cancelled trains, especially during rush hour, that meant that a number of other trains were overcrowded and people often could not get onto the train.

Vicky Ford has written to Chris Grayling about the Greater Anglia train issues

"He very much understood the issue and he agreed that it must be looked at and he told me to issue a small letter which I have done.

"I think it is really important we get this situation sorted over the next few days.

"We have one of the busiest lines in the country and it needs to be continually improved."

The news comes after a number of Essex MPs have also gone to social media over issues affecting passengers.

Braintree MP and Conservative Party Chairman James Cleverly took to Facebook last week to reveal a letter sent to the rail providers.

On Thursday, June 14, he wrote: "My constituents are facing longer journeys, severe overcrowding in carriages and potentially dangerous overcrowding on platforms due to Greater Anglia having to run a heavily reduced service.

"Many commuters have not even been able to board the trains which they have been waiting for.

"I am advised that many of the services which are running continue to be short formed."

(Image: Facebook: James Cleverly)

More recently, Witham MP Priti Patel has challenged Network Rail over how it responded to the disruption which passengers experienced at London Liverpool Street last week.

Following a crack in a bespoke piece of the track, services to and from the train station, were severely delayed.

Witham MP Priti Patel

After Ms Patel wrote to them to fix it urgently, Network Rail confirmed that "the piece of track in question had been identified as needing to be replaced in January" and that "the track was expected to remain within the tolerable limits for wear until the new section could be installed [in October]".

However, the track weakened quicker than expected and a temporary fix was installed on the morning of Saturday 17 June allowing services to operate normally.

Following this reply, Ms Patel has highlighted her concern about some aspects of Network Rail’s response.

Ms Patel's response to the issue

“It is unacceptable that Network Rail identified this track defect in January and that a temporary fix was not put in place immediately to ensure that the track did not deteriorate further. This raises significant safety concerns because train operators were still allowed to run their services over this section of track potentially putting passengers and train staff at risk.

“I have called on Network Rail to confirm how often this piece of track was monitored by engineers following the discovery of the defect and have also asked them to confirm that Greater Anglia, as the train operator, was immediately made aware of this defect so suitable precautions could be put in place to limit the risk of the track deteriorating further and to ensure the safety of passengers travelling along this route. The safety of passengers is paramount and it is concerning that services may have been able to run without proper safeguards in place.

“It is disappointing that this defect will not be permanently fixed until October and I am sure that all rail users will be astonished that it is taking so long for this piece of track to be constructed and installed. I have also called on Network Rail to confirm how regularly this temporary fix will be inspected in the coming months to ensure that it is safe for use and that the disruption seen last week will not occur again before the track is permanently fixed.”

Last week saw long delays and cancellations on Greater Anglia services , where peak rush hour times were mostly affected.